Big Bend National Park

Big Bend's rocky rippling landscape is a mishmash of countless geologic formations. As you drive through the park, mountains, canyons, and mesas grow and sink across the vacant Chihuahuan Desert, a plateau of volcanic remains mostly too inhospitable for human life.

I spent the bulk of my short time in the park exploring Santa Elena Canyon in the southwest corner and climbing to the top of Lost Mine Peak in the Chisos Mountains. I must go back to see entire sections of the park I didn't get to visit.

The Rio Grande's coarse, rushing water, "liquid sandpaper" as one sign described it, whittled 1,500 feet deep Santa Elena Canyon out of Sierra Ponce over millions of years. Once the bottom of an ancient ocean, this turn in the river leads into a spectacular, squared-off tunnel of rock and sky. On the other side is the sovereign state of Mexico. Crossing is not allowed.

I stopped briefly at the Castolon Visitor Center formerly the location of a cotton farm, military encampment, and customs office. A kind park volunteer suggested which sites to see in my limited remaining time there. On her advice, I hiked down into and then climbed out of Tuff Canyon before proceeding to the Chisos Mountains.

The Chisos, she said, were the highlight of the park. Their name is thought to come from a variation of the Spanish word for "enchanted." A cluster of jagged mountains unexpectedly rising out of the middle of the desert, the elevation creates a woodland climate capable of sustaining life that the desert cannot.

Lost Mine Peak, one of the park's most popular hikes, is a stunning five-mile venture to the top of what legend holds was once a colonial silve mine. According to the unverified tale, Spanish explorers enslaved natives to dig for silver, but the natives revolted, killing their European captors and hiding the mine forever.